"What is a Meme?"  I pronounce it so it's rhymes with 'dream'; some pronounce it so it sounds like 'mem' (from mem-ory). In the context of web logs / 'blogs / blogging and other kinds of personal web sites it's some kind of list of questions that you saw somewhere else and you decided to answer the questions.

Then someone else sees them and does them and so on and so on. I generally consider these to be actual questions and not some multiple choice quizzes that determine some result at the end (what color you are most like, what cartoon character are you, what 80s movie are you).

A meme is:

An idea that, like a gene, can replicate and evolve.

A unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, and subjected to mutation, crossover and adaptation. 

     
 With all that said, I recently came across a meme called FACE BEHIND THE BLOG at SHA MONEY MAKER DOT COM. The meme was actually started 4 weeks ago by DAVID AIREY. The idea is that by putting a face to the name of someone you haven't met helps recognition and adds a more personal feel to your conversations. - And he suggested illustrating the piece with photos that really show us in a different light, perhaps something other than our standard headshot!

And we really wanted to participate in this one! The whole reason   behind  LIFE BY DESIGN is why we live our life the way we do! We both feel so strongly about living each day to it's fullest and creating a life full of happiness, energy and having fun! And when a stranger reads our blog, they really have no idea who we are - up until now. We want to share with you some images and stories of our 8 years together and our life by design!



Derrick and I met while standing in line at a nightclub! Both of us had previously had long term relationships which I think prepared us for our meeting. We only chatted a few minutes before entering the club, paid our cover charge and was dumped into the sea of people at this huge club. About 2 hours later, we ran into each other. He asked me if I wanted to dance, and we did. It was magic! And we have been together ever since!

For years, Derrick had studied all the greats; Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Dale Carnegie...all the master creators of a life by design. During our first year together, he brought me up to speed and shared with me all that I had been missing. Like a sponge, I soaked up all the information and started applying the principles in my life. While working for Siegfried and Roy, Roy had taught me a lot about living life and realizing your dreams, but all of this new  information took it all to another level.

Derrick had a shark tattoo on his right forearm when we met. And I had been thinking about a tattoo but unsure of a design. One night, Derrick had a dream that I got a different kind of shark and put it on my other arm. While vacationing in Miami, we go to the tattoo shop and they showed me 4 sharks. None of them looked as good as his. So I asked, "would it be too gay? if we had matching tattoos?" And he said, "but we are gay! So what?!" - So I got the same shark, but on my left forearm.


When we got back to Chicago, we went out to a popular club that Saturday night, with our matching tattoos! And we had these 2 identical tank tops, but one was red and one was blue. The line had about 50 people in it. We're standing there, talking to some people, showing our tattoos, and this big security guard comes over to us and says, "you're coming with me!"

We didn't know what was going on, but followed him. He ushered us in the front door and said, "You guys look so fun with your matching stuff - you never wait in line here and you never pay cover, OK? You come right to me, and I will take care of you!"

WOW -we were blown away! At first we thought the matching thing might be taken as hoakey, but people really liked it. We generally radiate an infectious happiness, and people are drawn to us. In the following weeks, we went out and purchased some really fun matching pants and shirts. We became known all around town as "those matching guys".

    

Of course, as time went by, we had to keep raising the bar, and the outfits had to be more creative. Nightclubs  expected us, to be dressed up. And if there was a theme, we would embody the theme!

            

One of our best outfits ever was the seashells for a party called UNDER THE SEA. We had experimented a week prior to the event, because we knew it was going to tak time, to apply all the shells, with spirit gum. Everything seemed perfect. - Well, it was a hot humid 95 degrees the day of the event and the air conditioning was barely keeping us cool. After about an hour of trying to apply shells that kept popping back off, we called a friend who was an entertainer / performance artist.
He said, "Honey, you have to use Crazy Glue! It will stick for many hours - but don't worry, it'll be fine and won't stick forever!" - So we ran and got some Crazy Glue and started sticking shells on! It was about 7pm. And we walked to event, every once in a while, a shell would pop off and land in the street! But overall they stuck most of the evening and the crowd loved the costume! By about 3 am, the venue was so hot, it had to be about 105-110 degrees, we were dripping in sweat and had lost about of the shells! Derrick turned to me and said, "We're done!" And he took his hand and simply slid it across this chest and the remaining shells came right off.  We showered when we got home, put on some good moisturizer and our skin was fine in a couple days!

 

The bottom line is we love life and love to have fun. Most people would never guess our ages...we are 41 and 46 now. (I can't believe I revealed that....)  And you would be amazed at the young people who come up to us (they never believe us when we tell them our age) and want to know us and ask about our relationship. We were in New York City a couple years ago and running to cross the street in SoHo, j-walking, and a car stopped to double park, so we cut out in front of them, and we were holding hands as we dashed across the busy street, and the young woman parking the car said, "You guys are so adorable!" - I think people really feel our love and our genuineness. We never fight - why waste the energy? Life's too short to waste time fighting. This life is NOT a dress rehearsal! So enjoy it. Don't  grow old and say I wish I should have....Just DO IT! Don't care what other people think.

We consider ourselves swans - and can't imagine living without each other.
That's just us!

Now back to the Meme - gosh this a long post!

I am tagging 
Karen Hanrahan and
Jeff Maziarek and
Tim Draayer

Instruction to this meme

1st step

Post a short blog article that includes a photograph (or a series of photos) showing the face behind your blog. If you already show a photo somewhere on your site (such as in your about page), then make your post more interesting and choose a photo that's not currently online.

2nd step

Include links to other people that have displayed a photo, or include their photos in your post, adding a reference. Here are the others who have participated so far:

Gayla at Mom Gadget
Char at Essential Keystrokes
Paul at Reflections

Rob at 2Dolphins
Zep at The In-Sect

Ingo at Stixster
Stevie at Lost In Cyberspace

The Paper Bull at (oddly enough) The Paper Bull
Lisa Sabin-Wilson at Just A Girl In The World
Dawud Miracle at dmiracle.com

Wendy Piersall at eMoms at Home
Dennis Bjørn Petersen at Petersen Inc.

Randa Clay at Randa Clay Design
Drew McLellan at The Marketing Minute
Becky McCray at Small Biz Survival

Phil Gerbyshak at Make it Great!
Steve Woodruff at StickyFigure

Dave Olson at Live the GREAT life that you desire
Greg at Become a Remote Control SEO
Ariane Benefit at Neat Living Blog

Genesis at the At Home Mom Blog
Armen at iFFECT.NET

Mihaela Lica at Online Public Relations
Tara at Graphic Design Blog
Doris Chua at Home Office Women

Edward Mills at Evolving Times
Tony D. Clark at Success from the Nest

Jonathan-C Phillips at SmartWealthyRich
Karen at A Deaf Mom Shares Her World
Lisa Gates at intrinsic life design

Rammel Firdaus at rammelfirdaus.com
Carol at Pentimento

Adam Kayce at Monk at Work
Thomas at Technical Blogger
Tammy Lenski at I Can't Say That!

Chris Brown at Branding & Marketing

Rory Sullivan at Hamelife
Derek Wong at Going The Wong Way
Embuck at embuck.com
Ms. Q at QMusings

Shelly Tucker at This Eclectic Life

Steve at Ramblings from the Marginalized
Troy Worman at on!blog
Lilith at Lilith's Owl Nest
Revov at REVO-OVER

Karin at Stop/Start
Derrick at Life By Design

A link back to this post is much appreciated, to help create a more personal community!

3rd step

Tag as many others as you like in your post to spread the meme.

4th step

If you link back to me here and send an email I'll be sure to include links back to you.

Each person tagged should create their own post and repeat the process.

HAVE FUN! Enjoy Life! Live Large!